Review: Amedei Porcelana

Lindy's Rating: 10.0 (previously ***)

Richard's Rating: 9.5 (previously ***)

chocolate maker Amedei bar Porcelana region Venezuela plantation (unknown) cacao trees Criollo year (unknown) size 50g ~ 1.8oz cocoa solids 70% fat cocoa butter sweetener cane sugar emulsifier (none) flavoring vanilla other ingredients (none) list price N/A

color medium-dark brown PANTONE 19-1217 Mustang texture smooth with text imprints and scoring aroma earth (must), floral, fruit (strawberry), sweet, roast snap hard taste sweet, nut (almond), roast (malt), hints of vanilla and fruit melt more smooth length medium finish very slightly acidic, slightly ashy

MORE RECENT REVIEW: Amedei Porcelana

This is our second review of Italian chocolate maker Amedei's Porcelana bar. We reviewed this chocolate only about a month after starting this blog. Since it is our favorites lists, we felt it deserved a subsequent review now that we have more experience and perspective (if only to confirm our prior review). You can read the first review here.

Amedei Porcelana is a single origin chocolate made from Porcelana cacao beans from Venezuela. The beans from these Criollo cacao trees have a distinctive white color and were named Porcelana for this porcelain-like color.

This chocolate was made from 70% cocoa solids, cane sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla. The 50 gram bar was scored into 10 pieces, each with a few lines above and below the "AMEDEI" imprint. The best before date on the bar we reviewed was May 2011. The color of Amedei Porcelana was a medium-dark brown Mustang (PANTONE 19-1217). The bar had a hard snap.

Just after breaking the chocolate we could smell sweetness and roast, but those soon faded and were replaced by a strong earthy must. Other evident aromas were floral and fruit, the latter of which was a strawberry and perhaps some olive.

Porcelana tasted of sweetness, almond, and malt. The nutty almond flavor seemed roasted to me; Lindy found it more like almond extract. We both noticed a hint of vanilla, and I tasted a suggestion of fruit as well.

The melt was more smooth. In the prior review, we indicated creamy because we didn't have a "more smooth" in our melt range at that time. The flavor lasted about 25 to 30 seconds after the chocolate was gone, easily reaching medium length. I found the finish very slightly acidic; Lindy experienced it as slightly ashy.

Overall, we both still liked Amedei Porcelana and rated it a high *** (down from Lindy's prior **** rating). It remains a favorite of both of us. In 2009, this bar won one of the five Gold awards by the Academy of Chocolate in the bean to bar dark chocolate category.

Amedei does not publish list prices, but you can purchase Porcelana online from Chocolopolis for $15.00. It remains the most expensive chocolate we've reviewed (on a per-ounce basis. Take a look at our best chocolate values page for comparison).